2024-01-13 22:00:00
LA TRIBUNE SUNDAY – Are you surprised by the entry of Rachida Dati into the Attal government?
ANNE HIDALGO – Like everyone else, but perhaps less than the actors in the world of culture, to whom, from the bottom of my heart, I wish good luck.
Rachida Dati might be the Macronist candidate in Paris in 2026. What do you think of this “deal” made with Emmanuel Macron?
At the Council of Paris, she brought insult, insult, permanent provocation, questioning of the legitimacy of elected officials where lies and excess take the place of proposal and vision. What is now underway is the Trumpization of culture and public broadcasting. A great program for 2026.
Gabriel Attal Prime Minister, what do you say?
This appointment will change absolutely nothing. Neither for the daily lives of the French, nor for the democratic functioning of our country. He still does not have a majority in the National Assembly. It is not through individual poaching that it will expand. Take the immigration law, adopted in the greatest chaos in the National Assembly. The President of the Republic, without a compass, ends up relying on the Constitutional Council to delete the articles that do not suit him! A democratic aberration.
The year 2023 will have been complicated for you… What lessons have you learned from the controversies you have been the subject of?
You know, it was not very different from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017… Today, the place of truth in public debate has regressed a lot, to make way for spectacle, a permanent show often of very poor quality. We are not elected to act. In all democracies, political life has become, also under the effect of social networks, much harsher, centered on personal attacks, and when it comes to progressive women, environmentalists, etc., it is even worse . I draw the conclusion that we must stay the course, have strong teams that are always faithful to their convictions.
Your trip to Tahiti at the beginning of October raised a lot of criticism. Do you have any regrets?
No way. I have no regrets. Paris is a metropolis with a significant overseas population. That Paris works with New Caledonia or Polynesia, which are French territories, is obvious. Whether I can also afford a vacation and take time to take care of my family is my business. May the new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, indicted for corruption and influence peddling, dare to give me lessons by casting opprobrium on all elected officials in a kind of somewhat crazy race towards “all rotten” to try to hide what is happening to him, we think we are dreaming. It’s been twenty years since I was elected in Paris, twenty years since some people have tried to find various and varied deals and there is nothing. In political life, you have to overcome this type of ordeal because some people try to lead you either into their delirium or into something that would mask their own turpitude. You have to be solid, stay honest, deeply honest.
The year 2023 was also that of the breakup of Nupes. Is Jean-Luc Mélenchon the main obstacle to the coming together of the left?
Yes. I always said that Nupes was a dead end. There is nothing to build with someone who left the PS and wants to destroy it. Jean-Luc Mélenchon proves every day that he is a populist, if only in the functioning of his own party. The very beautiful essay by Giuliano da Empoli The Engineers of Chaos describes very well what these populist political groups are. Moreover, from this point of view, Renaissance is not very far from it either, because there is no congress, no vote, no defended line, no internal democracy. There is a leader and everyone must follow his will. Many people dream of an alternative, but it cannot be Mélenchon.
Do you support Raphaël Glucksmann, who will be supported by the PS for the European elections?
We cannot approach the European deadline as we are currently doing. Times are serious, I call for union between environmentalists and socialists. There is a very close proximity between the two electorates. On European issues, we have the same values. For me, there is really room to mark progress in this direction from this European election. I hope we can find the path to unity.
So you are calling on Raphaël Glucksmann and Marie Toussaint, for environmentalists, to make a joint list?
Yes. I think we absolutely need to bring their lists closer together and expand them. I have always respected the choice of environmentalists to declare that the European elections are their favorite elections. But here, we have a historic responsibility in view of the rise of the extreme right throughout Europe, the disintegration of the presidential offer. There is room for a humanist, socialist, ecological offer.
In your own majority, environmentalists seem more and more critical of your action…
I have a very solid team and majority. For ten years I have been told that they will explode in mid-air. The lesson I learn from this is that you have to stay on course, have a vision and ensure the proper execution of decisions down to the last detail. Paris City Hall is an exceptional machine with extremely well-trained municipal agents, involved in their work, very keen to do a good job. They have a sense of public service.
Bertrand Delanoë made you his successor before the end of his mandate. Do you plan to do the same thing with your first deputy, Emmanuel Grégoire?
This year, the priority is the Olympics. We are two and a half years from the end of this mandate, it is not yet the time for me to make a choice.
You don’t hear the criticism and don’t see the not-so-good polls…
The Parisians I meet every day are very kind. Especially women, moreover, who see clearly what it means to be a woman in power and how we are treated. From 2017 to 2020, I have already suffered a bashing. And in 2020, I was re-elected. Citizens have a direct relationship with their mayor and they see everything we do. These systematic criticism operations are still very organized and orchestrated. It was recently discovered that Azerbaijan had launched a major campaign once morest Paris and that Russia had raised the issue of bedbugs. We are there.
Looking back, do you consider that your presidential candidacy was a mistake?
No way. I took responsibility for my decision because I was the one who might do it. I had just won the 2020 municipal election. I knew that I still had several years left following the presidential election to continue my activities as mayor. Obviously we weren’t going to win this election. I was not audible. The PS with Olivier Faure did not support me. Since then, I have seen that my party has sunk further. Of course I would have liked to get a much higher score. But it was still a great experience. I have absolutely no regrets.
This must have changed you personally?
I think it changed me to see a country so sad, in complete doubt, with people who feel abandoned and public services in disarray. I also met people with crazy energy. I know that every experience changes you. I am currently writing a book which will revolve around democratic issues. Politics is also regarding failures; every time I
got up.
Paris will be transformed for the Olympic Games. What trace will they leave in the capital?
First legacy, Parisians and visitors will be able to swim in the Seine. I will swim there myself in July, just before the opening of the Olympics! Without the Games, Jacques Chirac’s promise would have remained in the air. And from summer 2025, there will be three swimming sites in Paris. There will also be very beautiful transformations in the field of ecology, with a significant social dimension since the Porte de la Chapelle will be transformed, with extraordinary landscaping, a new performance hall and tomorrow the Condorcet University. In this neighborhood, the lives of the residents will change. Finally, there will be all this surface area reclaimed from the car: the Concorde, the Trocadéro and Iéna which, with the Champ de Mars, constitute 50 hectares of pedestrian and planted spaces for walking. Without forgetting the place given to cycling, with 60 kilometers of additional cycle paths compared to what we would have done without the Games.
What do you want to do with Place de la Concorde?
Half of its surface will not be returned to motorists following the Games. It will be offered on the walk from the Tuileries to the Obelisk. We already have experience of how the half-gauge space works with the Rugby World Cup. The facts are there, traffic is smoother when half of Concorde is closed. I am very concerned regarding preserving its exceptional and mineral heritage character, while adapting the city to the heat peaks that we will experience, up to 50 degrees. I will also take care to respect its symmetry, which is part of the vision of architects of the classical period. I tell you, the place given to the car in this emblematic place will have been only a parenthesis in History.
The president of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet, affirms in our newspaper that everything will be ready for the Games. Is he right ?
I kept saying it: we are ready. Concerning the infrastructures, the Seine, the network of cycle paths, the reception of tourists, the reception of the events on the Olympic sites, we are ready. There are other subjects, such as public transport, on which there is still work. Will this prevent the Games from going well and being exceptional? No. We chose Games in the City. So yes, we are ready.
In terms of security, can you say that you will be ready?
Of course. Firstly because we work very well with Gérald Darmanin. There is not a single piece of cigarette paper between us on the organization of security. We are also lucky to have a great professional with the police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, with the Paris fire brigade, all the police and gendarmerie forces who will be mobilized, but also our municipal police.
Roadworks, traffic jams, doubling of transport prices… Aren’t the Olympic Games likely to be above all a constraint for Parisians?
On the contrary, I believe that these games will be great for Parisians. Already by allowing “usual life” to take place as much as possible. Of course, there will be constraints with the installation of the Olympic sites, some of them from March-April. But when we arrive in the good weather, believe me, Parisians will realize what the Games will be like. There are those who love sport, no need to convince them. We’re going to have to get on board, and that’s my job, those who are worried regarding their daily lives. The Games in Paris will be an unforgettable celebration. It will be a moment of joy and brotherhood, of which there are so few today.
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